Yasopp's boots clack against the cracked flagstones of Elegia's outer courtyard, his rifle already raised, its muzzle sweeping the broken towers. "You sure you know where you're going?"
Aurélie keeps walking. Her silver hair streams behind her, a pale pennant against the bruised violet sky. She glances back, and one steel-gray eye settles on him, flat and appraising, the way a jeweler regards glass passed off as diamond.
Yasopp raises both palms. "Sorry. I was just asking."
Limejuice chuckles, spinning his staff in lazy loops at his hip. "Dang, man. You're losing your touch."
Behind them, Tot Musica takes shape near the beach. The demon's silhouette consumes the horizon, a cathedral of shadow and sound whose low hum rattles the loose stones underfoot. Building Snake cranes his neck, following the creature's outline up and up until it disappears into cloud. "Looks like the kids woke it up."
Aurélie lifts her hand. A locust settles on her palm—black, plated like a tiny knight, antennae flicking out some urgent code. She listens. The insect springs away and disappears among the rubble.
She points. "This way."
---
Beneath the castle, the tunnels twist through fractured stone, water ticking from the ceiling into unseen pools. Charlie's pith helmet scrapes a low arch. He clears his throat—Ahem!— the sound echoing off the walls.
"Where exactly are we going?"
They round one last corner, and the tunnel spills them into a cavernous chamber. Shelves climb higher than the eye can follow—thousands of books, scrolls, and manuscripts flaking at the edges, every surface furred with gray dust.
Aurélie stops. "We are here."
Charlie's eyes light up. "Excellent, Ms. Nakano!"
He hurries past her, satchel thumping against his hip, fingers reaching for the nearest shelf before his feet have caught up.
Yasopp scoffs. "What are a bunch of dust books supposed to do for us?"
Bianca brushes past him, flicking her wrist. "Like, chill. If you, like, want to, like, know how to, like, get down to this, like, crystal prison or whatever—how do you, like, think we're going to, like, figure it out and stuff?"
Limejuice strolls after her, the butt of his staff tapping time against the floor. "She has a point."
Building Snake trails behind, rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess as pirates, we don't think about this kind of thing."
Aurélie arches one critical brow. "You don't say."
Yasopp lets out a long sigh. "Okay. So how long is this going to take?"
Charlie is already lost—his chin propped in his hand, his eyes scanning the spines with the intensity of a scholar who has found his temple. "Good sir, if you want the process to be expedited, then it would be beneficial for you to assist."
Yasopp's arms drop, slapping against his thighs. "What am I even looking for?"
Bianca, head tipped back to take in the vaulted architecture, replies, "Like, anything that, like, looks like it would, like, tell us where to, like, go or, like, how to, like, get there."
Another locust drops onto Aurélie's palm. It pivots in a slow circle, feelers trembling, then goes still with its head aimed at the far end of the library. She sets off without a word.
---
Bianca's gaze drifts upward. Her eyes fix on the ceiling. She points. "So, like, is that, like, important?"
Charlie turns from the shelf and traces the line of her finger. He blinks, then crosses to stand beside her.
"Good eye! However, this mural does not convey any information we have not already deciphered ourselves."
Limejuice, Building Snake, and Yasopp jog over and tip their heads back. Yasopp asks, "What does it mean?"
Charlie pinches his chin between thumb and forefinger, considering. Bianca asks, "So, like, what is it?"
Charlie meets her gaze. "If the ceiling was used to convey information as well as a warning, then it would be reasonable to assume that what we seek is not in a book, but in the structure."
Yasopp squints. "Huh?"
Building Snake glances from Charlie to the ceiling and back. "What the hell are we looking for, then?"
Charlie jabs a finger skyward. "Exactly!"
Bianca asks, "So, like, a secret passage or something?"
Limejuice snorts, his gaze sweeping across tier after tier of shelving. "Where would that be in a place like this? I mean, look at all these shelves. It could be anywhere!"
Aurélie clears her throat. They turn. She waits at the far end of the library, a pale figure at the edge of the dark.
"You will want to see this." Aurélie turns and walks on, past the last of the shelves, to where bare stone walls rise into gloom.
Bianca follows, her voice dropping. "Like, why is it so dark?"
She pulls out a flashlight. Before her thumb finds the switch, candles along the walls flare to life, each wick lighting the next like a running fuse, driving the darkness back.
Yasopp mutters, "That's not creepy at all."